SERMONS. I. GOD-THE GOVERNOR. FOR THE KINGDOM IS THE LORD'S: AND HE IS THE GOVERNOR AMONG THE NATIONS.-Psalm xxii. 28. HERE are some very special advantages now, in the THERE attitude of the public mind, for considering and appreciating the principles and procedures of the divine government among men. It is to be feared that we are not always in sympathy with God in his estimate of the sacredness of Law, and his measures to preserve or restore its inviolability. That estimate we sometimes look upon as mysterious or extravagant, and those measures as high-handed, sanguinary, and cruel. It is a grand thing for us, in that great contest of arms in which the nation is engaged, that our stand is on the side of loyalty. There are men as earnest, and perhaps as sincere and conscientious, on the other side. But the whole force of their position and the entire current of their sympathies concur to make not law, but rebellion against it, sacred to them; not the maintenance of government, but its overthrow; not the preservation of Union, but its destruction. The whole educational power of the movement upon them is toward demoralization and lawlessness. It loosens from about their hearts the bands of governmental restraints, all binding sanctities of covenants and compacts and oaths of fealty; makes it right and obligatory in their view to assail, tear down, and subvert the majestic fabric of constitutional authority, and the public order which it guards; changes deceit, treachery, and robbery from crimes to virtues; and presents, on the other side, no countervailing rights and sanctities defended and established, no imperilled liberties fought for and bled for, to offset and neutralize the awful nurture of revolutionary and treasonable violence. But every outlook of ours upon the great struggle is from the heights of the capitol. We are with the government. We stand for the laws. We sustain the appointed and legitimate administration. We strike at hydra-headed anarchy. For, let this rebellion prevail, and government is impossible. All bands of allegiance are like tow touched by fire. Compacts of confederation are ropes of sand. Disintegration as between North and South, between State and State, between one portion of a State and another,' between cities and towns and neighborhoods, between man and man, - nay, we might same man, for there is say between body and soul in the no final bound to the principle becomes the supreme law. We see the exigency with the eyes of our rulers. It is a perfectly fundamental and radical issue. It is life or death with all constituted authority. It is the whole question of civil and social order. It is just the problem whether men can dwell together in communities, or whether they shall resolve themselves back into individualism and barbarism, become each an Ishmaelite, his hand against every man and every man's hand against him. And so deep and strong are our convictions that we say, we all say; no tongue lisps a whisper of dissent, - Government must be maintained AT WHATEVER COST. Constitutional law must be enforced AT ALL HAZARDS. And we suffer no man alive, and no page of history, and no imagination of the thoughts of the heart, to put before us any estimate of the hazard, any computation of the cost, which can make us falter in that stand. Before any possible future, we repeat it with firm lips and steadfast hearts, "AT ALL HAZARDS, AT WHATEVER COST." Here, too, as in the other direction, is an educating power of transcendent force, and the lesson upon us and our children and our children's children will not lose its special vitality for three generations, at least, of human life, and will abide in our history, a voice of wisdom and authority for all times and histories to come. Now, then, finding us in this attitude of mind, God may speak to us concerning his kingdom. He is a Governor, and he may press us, now, with conclusions affecting his administration, which none of us can gainsay. If he ask, Shall there be a government at all, set up in his name on earth? we can only now give one answer. Sometimes we speak of God as though he were only a father to our humanity, and should confine himself to that. A father's office we conceive to be to furnish us with a home; to make that home pleasant and safe; |